Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold

So! Many! Characters! And! Subplots!

AND THE NAMES!!!

( but it was still good )

 
In short:  good series with a great female lead and a lot of interesting ideas, but suffers from too many subplots being added to existing subplots, and cramming enough ideas for 2-3 series into one, resulting in the series somewhat falling apart in the last book and a half.  Still, pretty good and worth reading.

Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold

So! Many! Characters! And! Subplots!

AND THE NAMES!!!

( but it was still good )

 
In short:  good series with a great female lead and a lot of interesting ideas, but suffers from too many subplots being added to existing subplots, and cramming enough ideas for 2-3 series into one, resulting in the series somewhat falling apart in the last book and a half.  Still, pretty good and worth reading.

The Truelove Bride by Shana Abe

A hundred years ago, a fae assaulted and murdered the wife of the lord of Kincardine, and in his grief, he made a deal with the devil for revenge.  The devil, however, didn't need any extra souls at the time, so instead of taking that, he cursed the clan with the typical poverty and loss of children and such for a hundred years, until the bride-a warrior woman with silver hair and violet eyes-returned to the clan.  Hanoch Kincardine, the last lord of the clan, recognized that Avalon(ignore the name, ok?) was the bride as a child, and when her father's keep was attacked by picts when she was seven, he rescued her and raised her among his holdings, training her to be the warrior bride of legend, having already betrothed her to his son, Marcus, before her father's death.

Avalon, however, despised his harsh upbringing and the legend that ruled her life, and was happy to escape when her cousin, Bryce, learned of her survival and summoned her back to England.  Five years later, Avalon believes she's found an escape from all the men who keep yanking her around, but just as she's about to do so, she learns that Bryce has arranged to wed her to his brother.  However Marcus, newly returned from the crusades, is warned, and is having none of that.

A lot of the plot follows the standard medieval romance tropes-childhood betrothal but never met, abduction after planned wedding to someone else, alpha male scarred(physically and emotionally) by the crusades, etc.-but works better for me than a lot of the others.  I think largely because, while most of these romances set up the heroine to have problems but in the end, just have them be "rescued" by the hero, and the make the entire story about his angst and issues, TTL remains primarily Avalon's struggles and her attempts to have some control over her life.  Marcus has his angst, and it's dealt with, but the story is mostly Avalon's story.  

( more )

Does anyone have any other Shana Abe recs?

The Truelove Bride by Shana Abe

A hundred years ago, a fae assaulted and murdered the wife of the lord of Kincardine, and in his grief, he made a deal with the devil for revenge.  The devil, however, didn't need any extra souls at the time, so instead of taking that, he cursed the clan with the typical poverty and loss of children and such for a hundred years, until the bride-a warrior woman with silver hair and violet eyes-returned to the clan.  Hanoch Kincardine, the last lord of the clan, recognized that Avalon(ignore the name, ok?) was the bride as a child, and when her father's keep was attacked by picts when she was seven, he rescued her and raised her among his holdings, training her to be the warrior bride of legend, having already betrothed her to his son, Marcus, before her father's death.

Avalon, however, despised his harsh upbringing and the legend that ruled her life, and was happy to escape when her cousin, Bryce, learned of her survival and summoned her back to England.  Five years later, Avalon believes she's found an escape from all the men who keep yanking her around, but just as she's about to do so, she learns that Bryce has arranged to wed her to his brother.  However Marcus, newly returned from the crusades, is warned, and is having none of that.

A lot of the plot follows the standard medieval romance tropes-childhood betrothal but never met, abduction after planned wedding to someone else, alpha male scarred(physically and emotionally) by the crusades, etc.-but works better for me than a lot of the others.  I think largely because, while most of these romances set up the heroine to have problems but in the end, just have them be "rescued" by the hero, and the make the entire story about his angst and issues, TTL remains primarily Avalon's struggles and her attempts to have some control over her life.  Marcus has his angst, and it's dealt with, but the story is mostly Avalon's story.  

( more )

Does anyone have any other Shana Abe recs?

Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank by Phil and Kaja Foglio

In an Industrial Revolution where certain people with "the spark" are able to tamper with the laws of ohysics, Agatha Clay(revealed by the mere title of the book to be connected to the Heterodynes, a family of famous adventurers) is a poor, clumsy student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, with little hope of success.  In one morning, she gets disoriented by an electrical disturbance, mugged(losing a Verra Verra Valuable locket in the process) is late for class, yelled at, and ordered to clean the lab before the Verra Verra Important Baron Wulfenbach arrives.

At about the point Baron Wulfenbach arrives with his arrogant, highly-scientifically-trained son, Gilgamesh("Gilgamesh Wulfenbach?" my brain goes when he arrives, "Agatha's love interest is named Gilgamesh Wulfenbach?  Oy vey...") and flunkies for an inspection and it's revealed that a Verra Verra Important project was nothing more than a test to see if Gilgamesh was worth keeping(he's apparently considered to be expendable) I started losing track of the plot.  Oh, sure, the plot was there, but suddenly there were allt hese insanely fun things like closets exploding and Gilgamesh with a fishbowl and bombs and swatting bombs with a wrench and objections to accidentally killing the guy who who threw the bomb at you(and your future girlfriend!) when you swatted the bomb and secret identities and mysterious illnesses and rampaging machines called clanks and giant machine guns and sorts of other things I'm forgetting and this run-on sentence has reached absurdity, but now you know what it's like to read it.  And OH HAI! Someone has the spark and you only get one guess who.

I think I love it and its zany insanity.  I quite like Agatha and her attempts to be pragmatic despite the insanity and and her clutziness, and Gil is so uptight and serious and potentially obsessive and highstrung that I want to pat him on the head.  He is also already blatantly smitten with Agatha(who, unfortunately for him, is currently a touch peeved over the whole "bomb" thing) yet amazingly oblivious about it that I detect much laughter on my part over that.  I also detect much wacky and over the top angst on the horizon.

Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank by Phil and Kaja Foglio

In an Industrial Revolution where certain people with "the spark" are able to tamper with the laws of ohysics, Agatha Clay(revealed by the mere title of the book to be connected to the Heterodynes, a family of famous adventurers) is a poor, clumsy student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, with little hope of success.  In one morning, she gets disoriented by an electrical disturbance, mugged(losing a Verra Verra Valuable locket in the process) is late for class, yelled at, and ordered to clean the lab before the Verra Verra Important Baron Wulfenbach arrives.

At about the point Baron Wulfenbach arrives with his arrogant, highly-scientifically-trained son, Gilgamesh("Gilgamesh Wulfenbach?" my brain goes when he arrives, "Agatha's love interest is named Gilgamesh Wulfenbach?  Oy vey...") and flunkies for an inspection and it's revealed that a Verra Verra Important project was nothing more than a test to see if Gilgamesh was worth keeping(he's apparently considered to be expendable) I started losing track of the plot.  Oh, sure, the plot was there, but suddenly there were allt hese insanely fun things like closets exploding and Gilgamesh with a fishbowl and bombs and swatting bombs with a wrench and objections to accidentally killing the guy who who threw the bomb at you(and your future girlfriend!) when you swatted the bomb and secret identities and mysterious illnesses and rampaging machines called clanks and giant machine guns and sorts of other things I'm forgetting and this run-on sentence has reached absurdity, but now you know what it's like to read it.  And OH HAI! Someone has the spark and you only get one guess who.

I think I love it and its zany insanity.  I quite like Agatha and her attempts to be pragmatic despite the insanity and and her clutziness, and Gil is so uptight and serious and potentially obsessive and highstrung that I want to pat him on the head.  He is also already blatantly smitten with Agatha(who, unfortunately for him, is currently a touch peeved over the whole "bomb" thing) yet amazingly oblivious about it that I detect much laughter on my part over that.  I also detect much wacky and over the top angst on the horizon.

Shaman Warrior Vol 4

( well, this is one way to endorse tough love )

 

Shaman Warrior Vol 4

( well, this is one way to endorse tough love )